An aerial view of a new isolation and treatment centre established by the Lagos State government at the main bowl of the state-owned Stadium.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
While testing is central to the fight against COVID-19, there are a myriad of factors to consider, especially by African countries, when taking decisions to curtail the spread of the disease.
Online misinformation can, to some extent, be addressed. But what is of concern to health-care communicators are the private communication pathways.
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Online news sources continue to grow as a primary source of information and misinformation. But private platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are harder to monitor.
Much of the world is moving online in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Society’s newly increased dependence on the internet is bringing the need for good cyber policy into sharp relief.
Social distancing is vital to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. But it doesn’t have to be purely physical - we can separate ourselves in time too, by staggering our daily routines.
The molecular based tests used to detect SARS-CoV-2 are very specific but can take two to three days to process and produce a result.
A National Youth Service Corps member leaves the orientation camp in Kubwa, Abuja, following an order by the Nigerian government to curb the spread of the COVID-19.
Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images
The recent seizures of counterfeit testing kits by U.S. Customs and Border Protection show that the counterfeiters have begun to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis.
Pence and Trump attend a coronavirus task force briefing.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Initiatives to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 are under way. But how far away are they?
Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, taking part at a video conference in extraordinary virtual G20 Leaders’ Summit at the Chigi Palace in Rome.
EPA/A handout photo from the Chigi Palace Press Office
Already, we have seen a range of responses globally - from countries that apparently reacted too late, to those who acted relatively early.
Doctors Without Borders supporters march in protest to the American Consulate in Johannesburg in 2012 over lack of funding to fight HIV.
Photo by Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Scientists need greater understanding of the bacterium’s basic biology, as well as more about how it is spread from one individual to the next.
HIV activists in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa in 2004. Solidarity and organisation were key in fighting HIV stigma.
Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty Images
The Greeks treated their city-states like bodies. To protect them from disasters, it was the poor that were often sacrificed.
Health care systems around the world are ramping up their response to the spread of COVID-19, like this hospital in Washington state.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Social distancing is impossible in much of Africa, and its economic consequences may lead to a famine that is worse than the pandemic. Prevention measures must consider the African context.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand